In order to record data at higher areal densities, shingle magnetic recording may be used. FIG. 1 depicts an air-bearing surface (ABS) view of a conventional magnetic recording system 10 including conventional pole 20 that can implement a shingle magnetic recording scheme. In addition to the write pole 20, the field 22 for the conventional pole 20 is also shown. In a shingle magnetic recording scheme, successive tracks overwrite previous tracks in only one direction. FIG. 1 thus depicts tracks 30, 32, 34 and 36 having bits written by field 22 of the main pole 20. The track 30 is written first, followed, in order, by the tracks 32, 34 and 36. Using the shingle magnetic writing scheme, the magnetic pole 20 having a relatively large pole tip geometry may be used to write at a higher areal density.
Although the conventional magnetic recording system 10 functions for shingle magnetic recording, there are drawbacks. In particular, the pole 20 may have stringent requirements for the track edge and reduced track curvature. Thus, side shields (not shown) separated from the pole 20 by small side gaps may be required. Issues such as wide area track erasure degradation, the concentration of magnetic flux at the side shields, write field loss due to the small side gap, and increased rise time may also adversely affect performance of the conventional magnetic recording system 20. Accordingly, what is needed is a system and method for improving the performance of a magnetic recording head, particularly for shingle magnetic recording.